The Team
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Performers + Concept: Emma Che Raethke + Sarah Whitehead
Director: Bridget Boyle
Set Designer: Sue Loveday
Dramaturg: Julie Robson
Sound Design : Mike Willmett
Interactive design: Daniel Flood
Producer: Emma Che Raethke
Sound - Matt Hsu Obscure Orchestra
BIOGRAPHIES
Director:
Dr. Bridget Boyle is a co-founder of debase productions. She has worked extensively in the field of clowning as a director, performer and teacher, having studied with Philippe Gaulier in 2001. With debase productions she has been involved in the creation (writing, directing and performance) of many new works, including Leotard (with Neridah Waters, co-production debase and Metro Arts), The Longest Minute (co-production with Queensland Theatre and JUTE), co-winner of Best Mainstage Production Matilda Awards 2018. Other works include Hurry up and Wait (with Liz Skitch), originally commissioned by Queensland Theatre (Shanghai International Arts Festival 2019, Kijimuna Festa Fringe 2012) The Furze Family Variety Hour, which she wrote and directed and which was staged as part of the Brisbane Festival in 2014 and Lily Can’t Sleep (with Liz Skitch and David Megarrity), commissioned by Queensland Theatre which toured Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Queensland after a premier season in QPAC’s Out of the Box Festival. With David Megarrity, she performs in Warmwaters, a musical comedy duo (Brisbane Cabaret Festival 2015-16, RPAC, Artsworx, Riverways Theatre, JWCOCA and QPAC).
Directing credits include for Queensland Theatre: Pride and Prejudice (co-directed with Daniel Evans), The Holidays, The Longest Minute (co-pro with JUTE and debase), Rice (QPDA Finalists reading), The Landmine is Me and Hurry up and Wait, Breaking the Castle (Sydney Opera House, QPAC, Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Old Red Lion, London), An Ideal Husband (La Boite), Weathering Well (Brisbane Powerhouse and QLD tour), for JUTE theatre: Cloudsong (creative development), To Kill a Cassowary;. For Flipside Circus and Metro Arts: We Live Here (co-directed with Natano Fa’anana, Winner, Best Direction 2018 Matilda Awards), The Outhouse , Babushka Book Club, Right to Party,The Owl and the Pussycat (Little Match Productions, Brisbane Festival, Festival 2018, Flowspace), Angels in America,Gloria, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Little Revolution, Bassett, Twelve Angry Women and Top Girls for Queensland University of Technology, Death in a Statesman, Popping Lead Balloons, The Clown from Snowy River, Lovejunk and Titanic – the Clown Show for debase productions. She has taught into the Acting and Drama programs at Queensland University of Technology over many years, specializing in acting and performance making. Her doctoral thesis, which focused on gender and physical comedy, received an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from QUT in 2015.
Directing credits include, for JUTE theatre: To Kill a Cassowary, for Queensland Theatre: The Holidays, The Longest Minute (co-pro with JUTE and debase), Rice (QPDA Finalists reading), The Landmine is Me and Hurry up and Wait. For Flipside Circus and Metro Arts: We Live Here (co-directed with Natano Fa’anana, Winner, Best Direction 2018 Matilda Awards), Thoe Outhouse (creative development),The Owl and the Pussycat (Little Match Productions), Dead Man’s Cellphone, Little Revolution, Bassett, Twelve Angry Women and Top Girls for Queensland University of Technology, Popping Lead Balloons, The Clown from Snowy River, Lovejunk and Titanic – the Clown Show for debase productions. Other credits include Of Our Own Volition (Spangled Drongo/ Metro Arts, Snagged (Vena Cava Theatre Company) and Glitter and Dust (pretend productions/ Metro Arts).
Performer and Co-Creator
Sarah Whitehead is a trained clown and theatre maker. She studied clown and bouffon with clown masters Philippe Gaulier (Paris) and Giovanni Fussetti (Melbourne). Prior to this she completed a Bachelor of Theatre Arts (Acting) at USQ, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Linguistics and a Graduate Diploma in Education at Monash University. Her show credits include: SeamTogether by The Seamstresses as part of Brisbane Festival, Spark Festival, Woodford Folk Festival and the Awesome Festival in WA; as well as The Outhouse by See Saw Theatre which was programmed at the National Circus Festival 2022, State Library of Queensland’s Summer Program, Woodford Folk Festival 2022/23 and as part of Horizon Festival in the Spiegeltent Wonderland. Sarah has been a choreographer for Ludo Studio's Bluey (episodes Dance Mode, Musical Statues and Onesies). Free Range (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and The Show Must Go On (funded by Arts Qld). Sarah also has worked extensively with young people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds teaching circus skills and facilitating clown and puppetry workshops in Melbourne with the support of Foundation House (Vic) and in Brisbane. Sarah currently teaches EAL/D to young people at Milpera State High School (Qld).
Producer, Performer, and Co-Creator
Emma Che Raethke is a performer, multidisciplinary artist and creative producer. She holds a Masters degree from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She has toured her work across Australia and Europe. She has performed in The 2 Strings European tour, School for Wives, Don Juan and Love on a Summers Eve for Noble Rot Theatre, My night with Harold and The Pillowman For 23rd Productions and Getting Physical for Strut and Fret in schools and at The DreamBig festival. She has been a Captain Starlight for the Starlight Foundation as well as a PlayUp performer for the Humour foundation in aged care facilities in QLD. She has regularly run performance workshops for Backbone Youth Arts, QTC, Laboite Theatre Company, The Song Room, PANI, Barking Gecko Theatre Co and Moreton Bay Regional Council. In 2011 she was an associate artist at LaBoite Theatre Co where she created and directed So Far Away Yet So Near as well a scripted work, Flinch. Her directing credits include: Black Grey White Lights at The Bakery in Perth and in regional WA, Journey ( RAF, RADF, Creative Australia funded) at The Judith Wright Centre/ The Centre and RPAC, Hometurf for LaBoite Theatre company and many community engaged site specific performances across the Deception Bay community.
Set and Textile Designer
Sue Loveday Bio
Sue Loveday is a visual artist who designs and makes creative experiences that bring people together. Her work celebrates the benefits creativity can have on individuals, families and communities. Sue designs and delivers collaborative projects that focus on creative thinking and processes, particularly via drawing as a way of communicating. Her projects also showcase storytelling and reusing waste materials.
Sue graduated from the Queensland College of Art where she studied a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration. She has also studied Architecture and Design and has 30 years of experience working in visual communication, illustrating, designing and making for large corporations and community-based projects.
Sue has worked regionally and internationally - Denmark, Finland and Singapore. Within Australia Sue has travelled extensively to work on arts projects within regional communities. Alongside being part of the Flying Arts Aliance touring team, a key project is the Shockwave Program in Central Western Queensland where Sue regularly travelled to remote regions over a period of 5 years to work with 4-25 year olds on a youth arts festival called ‘Shockwave’.
Sue’s installations have been exhibited at Moreton Bay and Bundaberg Galleries, as well as countless arts projects, festivals and events.
Sue continues to develop her Art Gang Project at West End Community House with a group of marginalised painters focusing on being artists.
Dramaturg:
Julie Robson is an artist, educator and researcher. Following her degree in theatre education at Queensland University of Technology, Julie worked in vocal, jazz and theatre ensembles, including a cappella troupe Sister Moon Ensemble, Tokyo-based jazz trio Honeybeeswing, and performance group sacred COW. She co-founded Magdalena Australia, a women in contemporary performance network linked to the international Magdalena Project. After her award-winning doctoral studies on siren vocality, she coordinated the Contemporary Performance program at Edith Cowan University. Julie was then a postdoctoral fellow at ECU, focusing on innovation and arts learning. She has served as a board member for the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, and an adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Returning to Brisbane, she worked for Flying Arts Alliance, managing the professional development program for visual artists and educators. Julie is a co-director of Ladyfinger, a feminist contemporary performance company that perform, produce and publish.
Sound
Mike Willmett
Mike Willmett is an Australian sound designer and composer for dance, installation and theatre productions. He is a key creative in the award-winning tech-troublemaking collective Counterpilot, who received the 2022 Matilda Award Judges Award, alongside three best design (sound, set and lighting) nominations forAdrift. Mike’s sound design and composition has been reviewed as “superbly [heightening] the complexity…through a challenging and emotive score” (The Almighty Sometimes – Winner of the 2022 Best Main Stage Matilda Award); “of the highest order, extremely clever and genuinely exciting…a feast for the ears” (Crunch Time – Winner of the 2018 Best New Australian Work Matilda Award), “amazing” and “unnerving” sounds that “sit in the peripherals of your hearing, building the tension while not distracting” (Squad Goals), “evocative… immersive… inclusive” (The Stance), and as a “beautiful cacophony” (Room #328). In 2022, he was nominated for two Matilda Awards (best sound or composition) for The Almighty Sometimes and Adrift. His most recent credits include A Few Good Men (2025, Queensland Theatre Company), The Enchanted Garden (Brisbane City Council 2024-2025), Medea (2024, Queensland Theatre Company), The Awe Experiment (2024, Counterpilot and World Science Festival), and Pigeon Fool (2024, Counterpilot). He was part of independent band My Fiction from 2008 to 2015, is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and holds a Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (QUT 2016), Master of Music (QUT 2009) and Bachelor of Creative Industries (Visual Art) with distinction (QUT 2007).
Interactive media design
Daniel Flood
Over the past twenty plus years Daniel has developed and delivered a diverse number of STEM, arts, media, and technology community cultural development projects across Australia. These projects have been with government (local and state), GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archive and Museums) organisations and in the youth not-for-profitsector. For 12 years Daniel led the development of State Library of Queensland's The Edge public program, delivering projects like the children-led creative project The Great & Grand Rumpus. Daniel's personal passion is empowering the public to actively engage in art and design practices, providing both space and opportunity to create. Daniel has previously worked with Emma Che Raethke in the development and presentation of technology enabled performance (Journey and So Far Away Yet So Near) and large scale performance works with schools across the Surat Basin for La Boîte Theatre.